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Thread: OT: Hopscotch in Rotherham in the Fifties...

  1. #1
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    OT: Hopscotch in Rotherham in the Fifties...

    This will probably only be relevant to those over 60 but you never know...

    When I was a kid we used to play a game of hopscotch out in the street using a chalked nine box (3x3) pattern. One square was marked as unusable and then we took it in turns to go though a series of hopping patters that started with 'Corners' and progressed through 'Ups and Downs' and 'Diamonds' to 'Little Uggies' and then 'Little Uggie Taps'. The hardest part, 'Big Uggies' and 'Big Uggie Taps', followed and it concluded with 'May I See?' which you did with your eyes closed. If you stepped on a line, fell out or failed to click your feet together properly on the 'Taps' parts, you were out and another person took over. If you got to the end you claimed a square with your initials which everybody else had to avoid going into on their turn. The winner was the one who claimed the most squares

    I only mention it because it was a great game that we played for hours but, so far, I've not found anybody else who remembers it. I've googled it without any success. We called it French Hopscotch but this appears as a completely different form of game on the web using a set of squares in a coil.

    So, can anybody help me out and tell me they remember playing this version, too. Or am I going nuts and imagined the whole thing? I think it was a very Yorkshire event and unlike conventional hopscotch, seemed to have been played predominantly by boys.
    Last edited by CTMilller; 25-07-2018 at 06:11 AM.

  2. #2
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    No mention of that one but some more local games mentioned here; Hopping Tommy, Relievio, Kick Off Can, Nipsy, Stick Knife and Husty Busty.

    https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news...usty-1-2524287

  3. #3
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    Those were the days. Certainly remember hopscotch though it was more popular with girls than boys. Other games I remember from the playground are "Finger, thumb or dumb" and "You show me yours, I'll show you mine" (More popular with boys than with girls. In fact it was quite difficult to get girls to partake - too busy playing hopscotch and skipping.).

  4. #4
    Hopscotch?

    We were so poor we couldn't afford chalk.

    Even the school kept it in a locked box

  5. #5
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    At Brinsworth Junior school in the early 1960s, the girls and boys had separate playgrounds. The hopscotch grid was painted on the surface of the girls playground. Of course kids used to chalk their own hopscotch grids on the pavements at home, but I can't remember ever seeing any boys playing it, or even knowing how you were supposed to play
    Last edited by mikemiller; 25-07-2018 at 08:28 AM.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by mikemiller View Post
    At Brinsworth Junior school in the early 1960s, the girls and boys had separate playgrounds. The hopscotch grid was painted on the surface of the girls playground. Of course kids used to chalk their own hopscotch grids on the pavements at home, but I can't remember ever seeing any boys playing it, or even knowing how you were supposed to play
    Me neither mike , hopscotch was a girls game at my primary school in the 60's .

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
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    Hi CT,
    You know what my memory is like these days. Thanks for giving it a jog
    Hopscotch- yes predominantly girls but boys did play it.
    Taught the youngest grandchildren Hopscotch unfortunately they decided to chalk the squares on a brand new expensive York Stone patio...eek..
    Marbles or ‘ mabs ‘ another one from the memory banks.

    Kids don’t know they’re born these days although my eldest 2 grandchildren do Martial Arts. One is Blue Belt and one is Brown Belt.

    A crafty bump for your book CT, I’m sure most people won’t mind.

    Far Away and Further Back....excellent reading and a memory jogger..thanks.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
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    In the early to mid 1960s the main playground games in Brinsworth were

    For girls - hopscotch, skipping games (some involving several ropes) "gymnastics" (handstands, cartwheels, even backflips). With the latter - could have been influenced by 1950s rock and roll dance crazes, or possibly from watching 1964 Tokyo olympics live on morning tv before they went to school (unusual for tv broadcasts to be on in the morning in those days)

    For boys - football mainly, also tennis ball cricket (if we could find a bat, or even a suitable piece of wood!), mabs, "British Bulldog" (for the latter, amazingly, nobody ever got seriously injured)
    Last edited by mikemiller; 25-07-2018 at 10:43 AM.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by animallittle3 View Post
    Me neither mike , hopscotch was a girls game at my primary school in the 60's .
    Not when you drew the grid on the M1

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by great_fire View Post
    No mention of that one but some more local games mentioned here; Hopping Tommy, Relievio, Kick Off Can, Nipsy, Stick Knife and Husty Busty.

    https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news...usty-1-2524287
    Hopscotch wer for lasses in Rowmish,dont recall any of above only Relievio started playing that at abaat 11yr owd but not the Spanish version,the Rowmish version wer called W**kin , other games wer Dicky leevo, 45, hot-rice, kick-can,snobs,mabs.

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